AI Is Our Biggest Existential Threat

In a recent tweet Elon Musk, the business Czar and founder, CEO and CTO of SpaceX, stated that “Competition for AI superiority at national level will most likely to be the cause of WW3”

- Suparna Chawla Bhasin

It has to come and it will!

This is about the Third World War — the idea is not to generate fear of any kind, but it is about warming up to the fact the impending third World War will most likely not be a military conflict, but more of an aftermath of the Fourth Industrial Revolution — a contest for AI dominance.

We are amidst this fourth industrial revolution. We are all experiencing the impact of this insurrection in various spheres of our lives and at the same time, we are anticipating the changes it will cause in the coming future. The possibilities are endless, the impact will be multitudinous and the significance will be exorbitant.

But the starkest element of the 4IR is Artificial Intelligence and this has the potential to transfigure and metamorphose the future at an unprecedented rate. This technology will mutate businesses, societies, economies and our very existence. And this is what Elon Musk, in a recent tweet stated —“Competition for AI superiority at national level most likely cause of WW3 in my opinion”. And a later tweet by Musk stating, “It may be initiated not by the country leaders, but one of the AI's, if it decides that a pre-emptive strike is most probable path to victory.”